California farmers make living la vida locavore easy. And it just keeps getting easier. In fact, the Sacramento farmers’ market is practically a complete grocery experience. We’ve had tortillas, bread, olive oil, produce, jams, almond butter, cheese, meats, and eggs for years. Yet, just when you thought life couldn’t get much better, the farmers add even more to their wares. The joy just keeps coming!  

Behold the latest additions to the Sacramento downtown farmers’ market. Throughout the week, I’ll bring you four new must-try items. So keep reading! Come Sunday, you’ll be itching to get to the market and be first in line.

Don’t let the word “raw” scare you. This is fresh milk—and as good as it gets.

When I was 16 years old, I lived in Denmark for a year. My Danish host family ate seasonal produce, baked homemade bread daily, and visited a farmer down the road weekly to purchase fresh milk. This rested in a bucket in the fridge until the cream rose gently to the top. We would then skim off the cream (for later use), saving the lighter, whole milk for our morning muesli or our afternoon tea.

This is the kind of milk now being sold at the farmers’ market by Organic Pastures based in Central San Joaquin Valley. It comes straight from the cows to you. Their milk is never pasteurized, which is said to help maintain the natural balance of vitamins and beneficial bacteria so rich in cow’s milk (and which pasteurization can kill). Their cows eat grass—not feed—and are never given controversial hormones or antibiotics.

Bonus for home cheese makers: the active bacteria found in raw milk makes a superior product when compared to cheese made from pasteurized dairy.

At $4 for a half gallon of skim milk, prices are competitive. The thicker the milk, the more you’ll pay. It can run up to $9 for a pint of raw cream. They also sell raw butter (unsalted) and kefir (a raw dairy product with yeast cultures similar to those found in yogurt).

Best of all: it tastes good!—silky with the sweet tang of rich refreshment that only a grass and clover-fed cow can make.